io6 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



ese nurseries, and collected seed of native species. The latter 

 is the predominant policy at present. 



These conclusions have been corroborated by Prof. C. S. 

 Sargent in "Notes on Cultivated Conifers," in Garden and 

 Forest, October, 1897, and "Classification of Climates," by W. 

 Koppen, in Bulletin American Geographical Society, August, 

 1906. 



There are many exceptions to the above conclusions. Many 

 Japanese plants fail to be hardy in severe winters, many suffer 

 from summer drought and some have bark killed in winter. 

 This I assume to be due to the more equable and humid or 

 oceanic climate of Japan. Some Japanese plants are severely at- 

 tacked by San Jose scale, as Japanese quince and Japanese plum. 

 The San Jose scale is severe here only on Rosaceac from humid 

 or equable climates. 



From western Europe several trees thrive here, as the 

 beech and Norway maple. 



The Prcsidoit — Mr. Hicks' paper seems to me to be of very great 

 interest. It is now before the Conference for discussion. 



Dr. Hansen — I believe this conference can bring out some funda- 

 mental truths and conditions. It is a conference on Acclimatization of 

 Plants. If we can bring out evidence enough to show that acclimatization 

 of plants is an impossibility in human hands, it is the most fundamental 

 thing that has ever occurred in American horticulture. I want to come 

 just as near making that a positive statement, that acclimatization is an 

 impossibility for human hands, as I can; that is, by selection alone — 

 that is, to adapt a plant to a greater degree of heat or cold by selection 

 alone— that is an impossibility, and that is the platform that funda- 

 mentally affects all our experimental work. In the same way, it might 

 be true that acclimatizing plants from the far north to the far south or 

 from a humid section to a dry section, or vice versa, is an impossibility. 

 Here is something that goes to bear out that truth, that for several years 

 past we must take what Nature gives us and not attempt to perform the 

 work of twenty thousand years in a generation. 



The President — We have had the fond theory that we could co- 

 operate with Nature. 



Dr. Hansen — Yes, by hybridization, but not by acclimatization. 



The President — In relation to the statement by Mr. Hicks, that our 

 native plants, trees, etc., are not only more vigorous in various ways, the 

 contrary also seems to be true when he says that the foreigners are more 

 subject to diseases than to enemies. Now, I have noticed this year for 

 the first time, that my English oaks aie badly infested with scale. Some 



